Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Thankful Board

Total Time: 5 min

Approximate Cost: $10-15

One Thanksgiving season I wanted an activity for our family that helped remind us what we were thankful for, looked good around the house, and was fun. This is what my DD and I came up with: A “Thankful Board”. Using paper leaves we can leave each other notes and encouragements or just say what we’re thankful for.

1. Gather Supplies:

· Cork board

· Paper leaves (Or you can cut out your own with colored paper)

· Fall trim

· Pushpins (I found pumpkin ones)

· Fall stickers

· Sharpies (I used fine point, fall colored pens)

· Stand (Or hang it on the wall)

2. Decorate the board. I used some of the fall stickers to cover plain push pins and pinned this leaf garland to the board, that way I can reuse the board latter.

3. Title it. I just used one of the leaves and all of the sharpies to make a “We Are Thankful For…” header. Get creative here and make it your own: Use scrapbook paper or foam cutouts.

4. Display the board somewhere central along with blank leaves, sharpies, stickers, and push pins. Encourage the family to write and decorate a post. So much better than a post on Facebook.

We put our board out all of November. As the board gets full I will sometimes rotate leaves. The kids will post things like “Family and Friends” and sometimes even the more specific things: “Going to church and hanging out with friends this week” or “Sister sharing her toy with me today”. My DH and I like to leave each other family friendly notes: “Daddy picking up the kids” or “Mommy cleaning the house” or every once in a while we will just leave one that says “Last night” ;)

At the end of the season I keep all the leaves in a scrap book or fall box. It’s always a blessing and fun to look back on the years past. And watching my children’s handwriting change reminds me of how much they are growing.

If you’re a couple without kids you can even leave love notes of any rating. If you’re single have guests post a leaf when they visit. No matter who posts, this ever changing decoration will warm you home so much.

Hi! I'm Steph! I am a happily married, work at home, homeschooling mother of 3. I own my own business, Atlanta's Santas, and in the off-season Love to participate in Children's Consignment Sales, Mary Kay, and volunteer at Little Lady's Pre-school.